WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

On a beautiful afternoon in Frisco, Texas, the LA Galaxy came into Pizza Hut Park and walked away with their first road win since late 2007. A hat trick from Edson Buddle lead the charge in the 5-1 thrashing of the home side.

“It was an embarrassing performance. We’re all ashamed of ourselves in the locker room and, ultimately, I’ll take responsibility for that as a coach. But, obviously, we’re going through a rough time at the moment. Results aren’t going our way. We’ll get back to some hard work. We’ve got a very, very good group of players, a talented group of players that have got the right attitude and are going to fight for each other. We’re going to work very hard to turn ourselves around and get a win in the next game.” – Dallas head coach Steve Morrow

The game did seem a little closer than the scoreline suggests. The first 20 minutes of the game Dallas completely controlled the pace and the possession. However a couple turnovers lead to quick strikes from Chris Klein and Edson Buddle to give the visitors the 4-0 halftime lead.

“Today was good for us. We did well in the first half and did a good job with the ball. We were capitalizing on good possession all day and that was good.” – Edson Buddle

It wasn’t poor goalkeeping on the part of Dario Sala for Dallas, it was mostly a group effort that gave up the five goals. Once the first goal went in, the game pretty much because unraveled for the Hoops. Players were bickering with one another and that translated into more chances for the visitors and less possession for the Dallas.

For the early portion of the game I never thought that LA was even in the game. Dallas had chance after chance that would either go wide or over the goal. But once the first goal went in for LA, all that mojo was out the building. Even with the early second half goal from Dominic Odoro the brief life put back into the Hoops got cooled off as Edson Buddle completed his hat trick.

This was a result that LA desperately needed. They had to show the rest of the league that they could win on the road. Even with the nice large crowd at Pizza Hut Park, the Galaxy pushed their way into this game and really didn’t look back once they got the lead. That is something that head coach Ruud Gullit has to be excited to see out of his club.

Some guys on the Galaxy impressed me, like Buddle who had his best performance since his Columbus days. But some guys continue to remind me that this club can put goals in the back of the net and also give up just as many in the process. The defense held up well against Dallas but there are still some question marks in midfield. Alvaro Pires looks like a total waste in the midfield. Rookie Brandon McDonald has his moments and let’s not forget Abel Xavier in the back. Thankfully for the Galaxy, Dallas didn’t have one of their better days offensively.

Whatever it is that Steve Morrow is doing right now isn’t working in Dallas. It isn’t the the defense didn’t play well or that the offense couldn’t hit the targets. It was a collective lack of effort out on the field that showed me that this club right now is showing its age on the field. On paper they are the youngest team in Major League Soccer and even against a team like LA they showed it.

Lack of composure, confidence, and intensity in the game is what is plaguing the Hoops these days. How they get over it is a loaded question. Maybe rotating in some younger players from the reserve side could be an idea.

Either way Dallas has a long road ahead of them. LA on the other hand may be starting to come around to things here. They still have pieces missing but there is a chance that they could very well do the damage that they were built to do in MLS.

That’s what I got out of the game. Afterwards I was lucky enough to be able to go into the press conference and interview some of the guys from both sides. Even got some close ups of David Beckham. Yup…even got some video (though I’m not sure if they are working properly just yet. Give me a little time, I will get them working before long). I didn’t have the best of seats inside the press box for the game so I didn’t get any good shots during but my seats were quality afterwards.

Morrow After the Game

Gullit On the Game

Beckham on the Dallas fans

Beckham on the Champions League Game on Wednesday

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